This weeks wrap up provided some suprises, as well as 2, potential French Open threats. For the most part the tops seeds came through in there respected tournaments. However, the week will be remembered for unseeded winners. Tour points will now be harder to come by, as this week ended the cycle of having 3 tournaments for players to choose from. Lower ranked players will now find themselves in qualifying draws, or challengers.

Zagreb, Croatia, saw top seed Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) fall in his home town tournament in convincing fashion, to Ukrainian lucky loser Sergiy Stakhovsky. Ljubicic, lost only 1 set throughout the week until the final. He, is starting to show some signs of the top 10 player he was a few years ago. I do not think he will return to the top 10, but winning a high quality challenger 2 weeks ago in South Africa, to go along with a finals appearance in Croatia, shows that Ivan, may have something to say about a return to the top! How about Stakhovsky? Who was surely the suprise of the tournament. Coming into Croatia, the Ukrainian had a tour record of 0-0 this year, to go along with a steller 6-13 career record. Just another example of how unpredicatable the ATP is, and how every player has a chance to do some damage, on any given week. Congrats, Stakhovsky!

The 2nd review of the week, from Memphis, Tennessee, had red hot Robin Soderling(SWE) playing, against the 2007 Amersfoort, Champ, (Im sure everyone remembers that) Steve Darcis (BEL) in the final. Soderling, who was a runner up last week in Rotterdam, showed once again that he is a force to be reckon with on an indoor surface. His straight sets wins over in form Roddick and Stepanek are a testament to that. I remember watching Soderling, play Felicano Lopez (ESP) at the 2005 US Open and thought to myself that this guy can be a serious player. He hits big off both sides and has the serve to match. As Roddick put it after his loss to Soderling, “If you look at his career record, indoors he’s over three-to-one in wins to losses.” ”Outdoors, he’s flirting with .500. I definitely don’t think that’s coincidental.” Look for Soderling to pic up his level of play again at Wimbledon and then after the U.S Open, when the indoor season begins. The week however, did belong the the young Belgium. Darcis, went under the radar all week and in quiet fashsion, took care of the easy draw that he was dealt and prevailed. Beating Soderling indoors was a great win. Lets see if the coming weeks prove this Darcis is for real?

The final tournament wrap up of the week, was perhaps a preview of 2 players that surely will be 2 of the favoriates at the French Open later this spring. David Nalbandian (ARG) and Nicolas Almagro (ESP), contested for the biggest title of the week in Acapulco, Mexico. Each was playing in there 2nd final in the recent South American swing, and what a dog fight it was. Clay court tennis at its best saw Almagro, prevailing in straight sets over King David. Great win for Nicolas, to go along with his win in Brazil, title 2 weeks ago. Almagro, was touted as being a serious contender for the French Open thrown 2 years ago, and it finally seems that he is ready to take that leap. Nalbandian, has shown me something these past few weeks, and if he keeps up this level of play, I can see David, being in the top 5 within the next 6 weeks. At present, my top 5 favorites for the French Open in order are, Federer, Nadal, Almagro, Nalbandian, and Monaco.

Technorati Tags: Andy Roddick, David Nalbandian, Felicano Lopez, Ivan Ljubicic, Juan Monaco, Nicolas Almagro, Radek Stepanek, Rafael Nadal, Robin Soderling, Roger Federer, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Steve Darcis

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